End of the World

When the writer was a boy in Brookings, South Dakota, predictions that the world would end on a certain date were frequent. One year in March the end was predicted for July 20, & a meeting was scheduled for 6 AM in a certain run-down chapel. The boy could hardly wait for the date & tried to imagine what the end would be like. On the appointed day he was at the chapel early. He was met there by a tramp whom his family had befriended the previous evening. The chapel had been closed by the police. The group who were supposed to meet there had their meeting in a field & were chased away by the property owner & the police.

Recommended Stories

As the years passed, Tom grew more entrenched in his homelessness. He was absorbed in lofty fantasies and private missions, aware of the basest necessities and the most transcendent abstractions, and almost nothing in between.